Thursday, 26 November 2009

Gooseberry afternoon

Most days I feel like I'm thrashing about, looking for the right thing to do. There are so many things to do, and so many things that have to be done, but I'm skidding around, unable to settle on which is the most important. (Guess that's why deadlines exist, right?)

Today I stopped the giddiness, just for a bit. I went outside to draw the gooseberry plant. I've been wanting to do a linocut of it, already seeing the stalks with the little fruitcases running along the top of a card, already having an inkling of the kind of lines I'll cut. I've also been noticing that the fruits are dropping, the leaves are getting bigger (and being eaten by something), and that the time for drawing is slipping away.

I tried to remember what I'd been taught: that drawing isn't about producing a picture, it's about putting down information, enough information to carry back to the studio and work from. I noticed the thickness of the leaves, and the way the tops of the fruits snug up against the stems, the gorgeous swoop of the leaves. After a while I realised that the only thing I was hearing in my head was something like "uh-huh... uh-hm... hmm... oh... yup... ah..." Thinking, fiercely, without any words. And that for me is the trick of drawing, and it's reward.So I haven't finished the ornaments I was making, or the tutorial I planned to post today. But I have started a new print!